The Green Bay Packers’ 27-18 win over the Cincinnati Bengals wasn’t exactly as clean as many Packers fans were hoping, but a win is a win, and now the team is sitting atop the NFC North going into Week 7. Today, we’re going to dive into who played where and why for that Green Bay win.
As always, these are snap counts that we personally have tracked throughout the year. The number in each cell corresponds to the number of snaps played, be it a personnel grouping or an individual player’s snaps, in specified
weeks. Cells highlighted in yellow mean that a player dropped out of the game due to injury. Cells highlighted in red mean that a player missed the game entirely due to injury. Cells highlighted in black mean that a player was a healthy scratch for the game.
Offensive Personnel
Offensively, the Packers dipped back into their three-tight-end and two-back sets in this game, after virtually abandoning them in Weeks 3 and 4. Overall, Green Bay played three-receiver sets on 53 percent of their snaps, their fewest since Week 2.
Quarterback
Jordan Love is your quarterback. No notes.
Running Back
The Packers have really put the brakes on the Chris Brooks snaps recently. Even though they had a lot of success blocking up blitzes with Brooks out of single-back looks and throwing deep shots earlier on in the season, Brooks has only played seven total snaps out of the backfield over the last two weeks — as few as any single game in Weeks 1 through 3. Meanwhile, Emanuel Wilson has played 35 snaps in the backfield over the last two games. Of Brooks’ seven running back snaps in the last two games, four were out of two-back looks where he’s basically playing a fullback role.
Receiver
For the second game in a row, rookie Matthew Golden has primarily played in the slot for the Packers. Following Jayden Reed’s injury, the team first played Dontayvion Wicks in the slot in Week 3, before moving Wicks outside and Golden into the slot. When Wicks went down with an injury in Week 6, Malik Heath stepped up and played a lot of outside snaps in his place.
Overall, the Packers have seen a significant uptick in playing Tucker Kraft, Josh Jacobs and Luke Musgrave on the outside, too. Before Week 4, the team only used those non-receivers as outside players on just 11 total snaps (3.7 per game). In the last two games, they’ve played 17 combined (8.5). This allows other players, namely Romeo Doubs, to get some slot reps. Doubs had received 18 slot reps over the last two games (9 per game) compared to just 13 in the previous three (4.3).
Savion Williams continues to be a gadget player for Green Bay’s offense. He played just 2 of the Packers’ first 48 plays on offense: a carry out of the backfield and a fake end-around on a play action shot.
Tight End
While Ben Sims did get his first offensive snap this season this week, it came on a kneeldown, which we aren’t including in our data. So he hasn’t played a “true” offensive snap yet this season.
Luke Musgrave gradually lost playing time to John FitzPatrick from Week 1 to Week 3, but now he’s outsnapped FitzPatrick 38 to 18 in true tight end spots over the last two games. For whatever reason, Musgrave has regained control of the TE2 spot.
Offensive Line
For the first time all season, the Packers’ preferred offensive line played through the entire game. Hang the banner.
At right guard, Jordan Morgan and Sean Rhyan rotated at the position, with Rhyan playing just one drive before Morgan took over full-time. Before this game, Morgan had spent most of the season at left guard due to injuries to Aaron Banks.
Defensive Personnel
With the Bengals playing so many three-receiver sets, the Packers almost exclusively played nickel looks in this game. That’s right, 90 percent of their plays were either out of their nickel defense or their three-defensive-end “Cheetah” nickel sets. For perspective, the Packers only played 66 percent and 67 percent out of those sets over their Week 3 and Week 4 games.
Essentially, they shelved their base 4-3 defense against Cincinnati because of the way the Bengals played offensively after tight end Mike Gesicki left the game with a first-quarter injury. This did not change when safety Javon Bullard, the team’s primary slot defender, dropped out with an injury.
Defensive End
The big news at the position this week is that Lukas Van Ness was carted to the locker room with a foot injury. Without Van Ness, the Packers will need to lean on Micah Parsons, Rashan Gary and Kingsley Enagbare even more.
The problem? The entire defensive line looked spent by the second halves of the last two games, leading to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur openly questioning the defense’s conditioning. It’s not feasible for the team to keep more than five active players at the position on their 48-man gameday roster. At some point, they’re just going to need more quality snaps from the top players at the position, namely Gary — who hovers around 55 percent of snaps played on a year-by-year basis, while other highly-paid defensive ends like Aidan Hutchinson, Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby are rarely off the field. For perspective, Gary didn’t play any of the team’s snaps on even just the third drive of the game this week.
Defensive Tackle
The biggest shift on the depth chart this week was that rookie Warren Brinson, after being a healthy scratch for the first four weeks of the season, out-snapped Nazir Stackhouse four-to-one. All of Stackhouse’s snaps came on Cincinnati’s 10-minute drive in the third quarter. He didn’t have a snap before or after that drive.
In this game, the team seemed to want to play Micah Parsons as their Cheetah defensive tackle until Lukas Van Ness was injured. After that, rookie Barryn Sorrell stepped up in that role, playing six snaps against the Bengals after only lining up at defensive tackle for six total snaps in the four games prior.
Also, shoutout to Karl Brooks, who played 51 snaps at defensive tackle this week, despite not even being a Week 1 starter on the team. That number ties the high for any defensive tackle in any game this year. He’s the one who picked up the most slack for Devonte Wyatt while Wyatt is out and dealing with a knee injury.
Linebacker
Nothing to write home about here. Quay Walker and Edgerrin Cooper are the team’s every-down linebackers, with Isaiah McDuffie coming in for base 4-3 looks. McDuffie’s playing time on defense will depend on how offenses play the Packers’ defense, personnel-wise. In this game, the Bengals rolled out three-receiver sets, so Green Bay played its nickel defense.
Cornerback
Nate Hobbs is the team’s preferred starting outside cornerback, whether you think that’s right or wrong, over the two weeks. The only times that Carrington Valentine has gotten into the mix at outside cornerback have been either after injuries in the secondary or in limited Cheetah package looks where Hobbs actually displaces Javon Bullard in the slot.
Slot Defender
Before his injury, Javon Bullard played all but one of the Packers’ nickel snaps as their slot defender. When he was hurt, Nate Hobbs entered the game as their primary slot defender, allowing Carrington Valentine to come off the bench as an outside cornerback. If Bullard ends up missing next week’s action against the Arizona Cardinals, assume that Hobbs will be the team’s starting outside cornerback in 4-3 looks and will play the slot in nickel sets.
Safety
Javon Bullard handled all of the Packers’ 4-3 safety looks opposite Xavier McKinney in Week 1, with Evan Williams coming off the bench for nickel sets against the Detroit Lions. Since that game, though, it’s been all Williams at the safety position.
